Archbishop Paul Gallagher named nuncio to Australia

(Vatican Radio) English Archbishop Paul Gallagher, currently the Holy See’s representative to Guatemala, was appointed last week as the new apostolic nuncio to Australia. The Liverpool-born Gallagher, who was educated by the Jesuits and studied at the Venerable English College here in Rome, went on to become the first English born nuncio to train at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy for Vatican diplomats. He worked in Tanzania, Uruguay, the Philippines and at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, before being sent as nuncio to Burundi in 2004 following the assassination of the former papal representative there. Archbishop Gallagher narrowly escaped death himself when the nunciature was badly damaged by rebels aiming shells at the presidential palace.

Since 2009, he has served as nuncio in Guatemala but in January he is expected to take up his new post as the first non-Italian representative of the Holy See in Australia. Archbishop Gallagher spoke to Vatican Radio’s Philippa Hitchen about his reaction to this new appointment….

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